Browsing through the report from the US Committee on Energy and Commerce about the way the FCC has been run, it becomes obvious that the FCC has, during the last administration, become little more than an extension of the presidential office. The 100 page plus report provides numerous cases of where the current chairman Kevin Martin, has manipulated evidence, reversed report outcomes and hidden the process and vital data from his other Commissioners.
Voting in the dark they have been unable to do anything but rubber stamp the decisions of the Chairman, likely to have been handed down from the government party line.
This is not how the FCC, the most powerful communications regulator in the world is supposed to run, and the report makes no bones about it, entitling the report ‘Deception and Distrust: The Federal Communications Commission Under Chairman Kevin J. Martin.’
We’re not quite sure what the report is supposed to achieve, except perhaps to bring the focus of scrutiny to the remaining tenure of Martin, so that he at least knows that interested parties are watching.
While not accused of anything illegal, or strong enough to force his resignation (not sure why though because it sounds bad enough for one) Martin is accused of running the FCC staff capriciously, firing or demoting people that didn’t agree with him, manipulating reports on a la carte cable pricing, on whether the 70/70 rule had been met in cable, on a dispute between Verizon and Bright House networks, and continuing a cover up begun by the previous FCC chairman on broadband over power. All of this was done by intimidating staff and keeping key data hidden from the public and the other commissioners. It paints a picture of a culture of secrecy and in many cases his office dictated findings before subjects had been investigated.
This report perhaps prepares a future appointed Chairman for how Congress expects the job to be done, in a clear and open manner, debating the issues, with the public, interested parties and the other commissioners before taking a final, democratic decision. Like many things in the Bush administration it was not straightforward, and the pigeons are likely to come home to roost once Obama is in power.
One particular case that the committee drew attention to was the way Martin used an amassed $800 million fund to overpay a service provider which delivered telephone capabilities for the deaf, and how Martin persisted in the overpayment to the tune of $100 million, even after it was brought to his attention. The company then declined to be audited by an external auditor but was still not struck off from the compensation list. That just goes to show that there is an awful lot of money in the merest of telecommunication services across the US, and although Martin has not yet been tainted with any suggestion of doing it for private gain, this report will be sure to attract persistent media attention.